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Bulletin No, 3 w WM. LEIGHTOR November 28, 1919. 


COMMONWRALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 


DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL APPAIRS 
James F, Woodward, Secretary 





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BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
George H. Ashley, State Geologist 


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DEVELOPMENT AND PROBABLE LIFE OF GAS POOL AT 
\ McKEESPORT , PENNSYLVANIA 
By 
George H. Ashley 





‘The ‘pxcitement in Western Pennsylvania 60 years ago when oil wes 
first obtained in a drilled well was so great that families drove for 
ailes to see the natural curiosity. As affecting numbers of yeople 
--the excitement was.small in comparison with that now filling the minds 
“lot a dense ‘bopulation in Allegheny County, The city of McKeesport has 
Yheen roaring for several weeks over the bringing in of a mishty gas 

-well almost Within the city limits, When I visited the city early this 
month to investigate the present development of the new gas pool anc 
get a line on its possibilities, among the things that attracted my 
attention were the eager discussions on street corners, and the 

Windows of store after store decorated with yellow land maps or 
pietures of derricks with 2 notice thet "the last chance to buy stock 
is at hand". In the field itself long rows of automobiles line the 
ditehes and the roads are filled with trucksloaded with lumber end 
machinery to be used in opening new wells. There is a hustle and 
bustle in end about Mexeesport like that of a mushroom oil town in the 
Gulf Coast field, The excitement began on jugust 29 when a well 
Grilled to the Speechiev sand just south of McYeesport came in with a 
yield of 4 million cubic feet per day end quickly increased the pro- 
duction to 62 million feet, 


The field centers along a ridge between Snake Hollow and the 
‘alley of Long Run and has, extendec through Versailles along the bank 
£ Youghiogheny River e few miles above McKeesport, Long Run Valle: 
is occupied with farms and because the land is held in large acreoges, 
fells there ere widely spaced, Snake Hollow, nearer the city, has 

heen subdivided into lots; many or which are occupied by houses, 













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Every lot in the hollow is ¢ vossible leasehold and may form the 
basis ror one of the gas companies whose advertisins Cecoretes some 
“4s the MeKeesport store windows. Where a lot is too small to eccomo- 
Gate both house and well the house is pulled Govm or moved off. The 
number of wells is increasing daily and one fells the air charged 
Witn the incentive of a rece to see who can be next to complete a 
hole to the gas-bearing sand, 


The eective development is located on the crest of what is 
probably the southward continuation of the. Murrysville or Roaring Run 
anticline, a long arch extending northeast from Monongahela City “$0 
the center of Armstrong County. The general position of this enti- 
cline hos been known for fifty yecrs or more and many wells have been 
Grilled on all parts of it, sas being reached in the Murrvsville and 
Other sends at depths or less than .2,000 feet. The Murrysville scanc 
is from 1700-to 1900 feet below the Pittsburgh coal.’ Some of tne 
deeper sonds, such as the Thirty foot and Sixth send, have elso 
vieléed one or tWO millions of feet of gas in ceri ein of the wells. 
3elow the Sixth sand is the Elizabeth sand “hte then below an intervcal 
or several hundred feet of non-paving strato, lies the Venango <srou» 
vee hishest of which is the Speechlev sand. The lerce flow of ces gor 

‘eousin® all the excitement in the ieZeesvort district comes from this 
ey The Venanzso group includes also the Tione and the TPirst enc 
second “ractord senes, The Speechley sand lies about 5280 feet~ belov 
the Pittsburesh bed in this eres, As prectically all the wells stert 
below the Pittsbure eh coal, the Sneechley send is reached at less th’ 
3300 feet, 


AS a matter of fact the Pittsburgh coal, had it not,been remover 
by erosion, wovld now be found a little moze than 400 feet ebove the 
“sevel of the B. & 0. Railroad from the mouth of Long Run to Boston 
Bridze, so thet in that area the top of the Speechlev sand should 
found at about 2880 : feet below the level of the reilroaé@ tracks--less 
sneer ithe exis ofthe articline and more 2s the distance from the axis 
incre*%es, ; $ ae! ee 


Drom the Gata at hand, it eprears that the anticline is broad 
end flat on ton with slizht undulations thet may be of considerable 
importance in determinine the location of the sas reservoirs. The 
axis of the enticline runs through Belle Bridge end follows in a 
general way the ridge lying northwest of Long Run and Jacks Run and 
crosses the Tincoln Hirhway not fer eest of the Allegheny-Westmore~ 
land County line stone. There are some Slight indications that the 
anticline may split to the northeast of the Lincoln Highway. Only ° 
Getailed survey of the whole field requiring several months work would 
determine the exact structure, Prom this flat crest the arch is 
flanked with broad, sloping shoulders and then turns down sharply ot 
either side as is plainly seen in the cliffs beside Walnut Street 
oetween Mexeesport and Crvstal Park, The arch rises towerd the north- 
east, it Belle Bridse the Pittsburch coal is less than 1150 reet 
above tide. Mlong the Lincoln Hithway the seme bed reaches 1240 feet 
above tide. At Xiskiminites River the coal bed, if praseat, woulc. 
heve en elevetion of about 1900 feet. There is no structurel rease™ 
way the Speechley sanc shoulc not prove proauctive along the whole 
axis end possibly elon: axes or otiner anticlines of the region, Wed i}. 
im the Sveechley send in Armstrong county heave vieldec from 1,000,000 


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to 50,000,000 cubic feet of ses a day, It may be doubted if many wells 
Will be found thet will vielc as largely as the Poster Hamilton No. 3 
which is doing better than fifty million cubic feet a day, That well 
appears to be on the very crest of the anticline but judging by the 
smaller and varied production of other wells in the same neighborhood 
and apperently located equally well, the differences of production 
Seem due to differences in the rock texture rather than to nosition on 
the structure, None of the vells have as vet been shot. . 


Among the questions naturally arising in developments such as 
those about McKeesport are those concerning the possibility of ges in 
still lower sands, the possibility of oil in the field, and as to the 

ife of the field. Several wells that failed to get a lerge flow from 

ne Speechley sand are now being driven cow to the lower beds. ‘AS 
che Bradford sand is only a few hundred feet below the Speechley, the 
oresence of gas in lower sands should soon be known, It cannot be 
Said cefinitely that no oil will be found in the field but a glance 
2t an oil and gas map of Pennsylvenia will suffice to show that most 
of the oil found in Allegheny County has come from northwest of a 
northeast-southwest line through the junction of the Allegheny and 
Monongahela rivers, 


If one~half of the gas wells now projected in the MoZeesport gas 
district are drilled, the immediate field will do well to last two 
years as a large producer of gas. The life of any field naturally 
depends on the rete at which oil and gas sre withdrawn, leaving out of 
account drowning by water. A few wells judiciously placed and supole- 
mented from time to time in the McKeesport district might heve supylied 
McKeesport industries for a helf century or more, but the present 
practice of punching the producing sané as full of holes as a colander 
Will inevitably result in the speedy exhaustion of the pool. By ex- 
tendins the drilling to the northeastward -a supply may be obtained 
whien will continve to furnish heat for the industries of Buffalo, 
Cleveland, Cincinnati and other cities for a dozen or a score of years 
upon a consicerable scale. 


The Bureau of Tovogranhic and Geological Survey will prepare a 
structural map of the liceesvort area and in the meanvhile it is 
requested thet drillers keep as accurate a record as possible of the 
depth at which the several sands are struck and in particular of the 
Upper rreevort coal, which lies about 170 feet below the top of the 
senestone that forms the cliffs along Long Run between the reilroad 

id Walnut Street near the cement bridge. 


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